Seriously though, in regards to T.O., I mean what is the risk ? I mean it's all upside. "IF" he starts mis-behaving on his one year deal and he starts to poison the lockeroom, GIVE HIM IS WALKING PAPERS right then and there, end of story! It's really that simple. He proved last year that he can behave for an entire season, we didn't hear anything out of him and he was
Can you imagine Moss and TO on opposite flanks ?
Let's do it, an uncapped year, throw him an affordable one year deal. There is no risk, only upside, again, if he starts with his antics, it's simple, we send him packing and drop in the WR we draft or Tate depending on where his development is.
Seriously can someone tell me why this wouldn't be a good idea and what the downside would be compared to the upside knowing that we could just cut him ASAP if issues arise ?
I blame fantasy football for posts like this.
Teams are not the sum of the stats of their players. If this were so, we'd see Redskins and Bengals in the superbowl.
Players are not interchangable pieces defined by their stats.
There IS a risk signing a potential problem player. Any time you sign a player, it changes the dynamic. Even if you later cut him, you define your team by the players you sign. If you sign players who think they are bigger than the team, you can no longer say you want players to think team first.
You need to evaluate risk vs reward, and how you think that player is fit into YOUR (by which I mean the Pats FO's view) of how you want your team to be.
Dillon had a low risk and high reward. His problems were made of hating to lose. He may have acted out, but you could see in his reasons that football was important to him.
Moss was a little sketchier, but not to the hyper-extent of TO, to whom team means nothing.
Brandon Marshall may learn or he may not, but his behavior is me-based, and I cannot see him as a team player. While he may change you have to assume he won't. It's like if you date a married woman (or man if you are a woman), and she leaves her husband for you and marries you. You are now married to someone you KNOW cheats on their spouse. Anytime anything goes wrong, you have to be wondering ...
Javon walker? What does this say about a player (red mine):
Walker, who appeared in three games for the Raiders last season, traveled to Israel to have an experimental surgery (without the team's knowledge) in which cartilage from his knee was regrown, then inserted into the knee.
Finally, once a vet makes the starting roster, his salary is guaranteed for the entire year. You can't just cut a guy and be done with him as you suggest if he turns out to be a problem child (which will not show up into games are played, not in tc). You still pay him if you cut him.
Walker, who appeared in three games for the Raiders last season, traveled to Israel to have an experimental surgery (without the team's knowledge) in which cartilage from his knee was regrown, then inserted into the knee.